Asheville's Brewgrass tickets may go on sale this month

May 10, 2011

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It looks as if tickets will go on sale May 25 for the 2011 Brewgrass craft beer festival, Sept. 17 at Martin Luther King Jr. Park.

That on-sale date is “tentative,” according to festival producer Jimi Rentz, owner of Barley's Taproom. But it's worth circling on the calendar because last year, Brewgrass sold out in less than a day.

The price is $40, and 2,500 tickets will be available online at http://brewgrassfestival.com. Rentz is holding back 500 to 1,000 tickets to be sold locally at a date to be announced.

Also, tickets are just about gone for the Beer City Festival, happening June 4 at Pack Square Park. You can get them at any of the local breweries. There are no online sales for Beer City.

'Three-peat' celebrated

Another year and another championship. As I've previously reported, Asheville has claimed the unscientific but much appreciated Beer City USA title for a third consecutive time. It was not a nail-biter of a race this year. Asheville led the voting from start to finish. Still, there were some surprises in the national poll conducted by the beer authority Charlie Papazian.

Our usual cross-country rival, Portland, Ore., finished in third place, with less than 10 percent of the vote. San Diego took up the charge and finished in second place, with almost 16 percent of the votes.

Asheville's relatively small size really works to our advantage. Around here, many beer drinkers have taken great pride in the Beer City poll and have scrambled to vote and encouraged other to do the same.

Meanwhile, you can join the celebration when Highland Brewing Co. founder Oscar Wong leads a toast at 6 p.m. Friday at the brewery tasting room, 12 Old Charlotte Highway.

Wedge movies postponed

Wedge Brewing Co. has announced that it has “temporarily” pulled the plug on its free outdoor movies series, while it works to “negotiate copyright fees” to show them.

Let's hope they can work something out. The free Saturday films have been very popular.